{"id":432,"date":"2014-05-14T07:55:01","date_gmt":"2014-05-14T11:55:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/?p=432"},"modified":"2014-05-12T17:03:16","modified_gmt":"2014-05-12T21:03:16","slug":"the-final-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/?p=432","title":{"rendered":"The Final Box"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a short email.
\n
\n\u201cI\u2019m finally down to the last little bit of stuff to get out of [the place], so please let me know when and how is best for me to get a small box of your things to you.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

You would think after over a year, I would be done with putting this relationship behind me. In many ways, I have. I actually suggested that anything that I hadn\u2019t had in a year was worth throwing away. . . only, he had a DVD of my sister in her one and only horror film role (a very amateur film, but still).<\/p>\n

Bite the bullet, Joey. <\/em><\/p>\n

It really wasn\u2019t that bad. I drove to his work and pulled my car beside his and texted that I was there. A bit of an evil spirit crept in and I pondered walking in to alert him that I had arrived. I wondered what his co-workers would say when they saw me, given everything. They had always been so warm and kind, and several had reached out to me after the split. But I stayed put.<\/p>\n

He came out, I unlocked the doors, and he transferred the box from his car to mine. We said some polite banalities, and for the brief moment our eyes met I felt . . . nothing. I watched him walk away with mild curiosity, wondering if the moment was the same for him. <\/p>\n

I had actually seen him recently \u2013 at a restaurant near my house. I walked in with a friend, deep in conversation. It was only after I was seated for a while and happened to glance to my left that I recognized first the back of his head, and then saw her. I thought of interrupting my friend to tell him, but it wasn\u2019t important enough. I focused on my friend, he was more important, and when we had a pause, I told him only to realize they were gone. Whether they saw me or not, I do not know. <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always said that anyone going through a major break-up or divorce needs at least one year before they are truly able to put everything behind them. I was no exception to the rule. Both moments had been times I had dreaded, but they passed with very little excitement. That\u2019s good. It\u2019s how it should be. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m so thankful that this all happened several weeks ago. When a new chance at happiness came into my life, I was able to approach it unfettered with any nagging leftovers from before. It\u2019s an amazing feeling, and I\u2019m a very lucky girl.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was a short email. \u201cI\u2019m finally down to the last little bit of stuff to get out of [the place], so please let me know when and how is best for me to get a small box of your things to you.\u201d You would think after over a year, I would be done with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[197,9,198,199,196],"class_list":["post-432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dating","tag-break-ups","tag-dating-2","tag-divorce","tag-final-box","tag-first-after"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2UnPK-6Y","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}